Nadir Monji

Vimla Durani

If you were at Tulmula today on the auspicious day of JYESTHA  ASHTAMI  (KHEER BHAWANI) you won’t go home without NADIR MONJI & LOOCHI and carry some for your family to share and taste. If some of you can’t travel for the Darshan to Tulmula far away from your country, here is the easy recipe to follow – don’t worry, let us try!

Ingredients: 1 1/2 cup Ground rice flour

1 stick nadru

2 tbsps Kashmiri chilli powder

1 tsp Ajwain (caraway seeds)/Thyme

1 tsp whole zeera (cumin) optional

1-2 drops Red food colouring (optional)

Salt to taste

Oil for frying 

Method:

In a bowl add finely ground rice flour, Kashmiri chilli powder, ajwain, and zeera. Add salt to the taste and mix all the ingredients well.

Now add water to the mixture, in the bowl bit by bit, stir it well till there are no lumps in the batter. Make a paste, mixture should be smooth keep on mixing.

Add few drops of red food colouring dissolved in water to the mixture (optional).

The consistency of the batter should be smooth not too thick. Leave it for 10 minutes.

Process:

On the other side, get one nadru  stick to peel. Cut it in the middle longways, into two pieces. Now cut the long pieces into small long pieces.Wash the cut pieces of finger sized pieces in water, so that they are nice & clean.

Put all the pieces in the batter made above. The oil should be very hot in the pan/ kadahai. Deep fry them only on a high flame, one batch at a time. Care should be taken that we do not rush and put all the pieces together.

Nadir Monji should be crispy and get them out and keep them away for 10-15 minutes. Fry batch by batch, every time oil should be very hot. Fry them again on a high flame, to make them crispy before serving. Use a paper towel to get rid of some oil from the monji.

Safety aspect: care should be taken while frying in very hot oil.

Serve the nadir monji with a walnut chutney dip.

Recipe for walnut chutney:

Grind handful of walnuts. Add crushed green chillies and mint leaves in a mixture. Add salt to the taste.  Put the ingredients together to make a paste. Add some yoghurt to it and your chutney is ready. Yum! Yum!